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Whether we want to buy something from a company that exploits workers, harms animals, or damages the environment, take a less than eco-friendly vacation, or start a lucrative, not-necessarily-helpful-to-others career, if ‘most good, least harm’ is our guiding philosophy, we’ll be faced with the conflicts that sometimes arise between our desire to be a positive influence in the world, and, well, other, less noble desires.
The trick to allowing MOGO to become an effortless guiding principle is to realize that it’s impossible to lead a perfectly MOGO life, but it is possible to lead a life in which one’s personal desires more often than not match one’s ethical values. The reason this is so is because it is deeply rewarding and satisfying to lead a life aligned with one’s values, and that’s what MOGO helps us do. In other words, by making MOGO choices, we improve our own life as a matter of course.
What MOGO challenges have you faced? How have you resolved them?
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | changemaking, ethical values, Guiding principle for life, meaningful life
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MOGO can be such a powerful mantra for our daily lives. It is so easy to tune out, to live in a world that is sanitized-to not feel responsible for the decisions we make, or tell the Emperor that he is butt naked. We do, as a society, need to make the shift from more for me to more good. Thanks Zoe!
Dear Zoe:
Thank you for offering such an important message, a message that i think would be valuable for anyone to hear.
In aiming to lead a more humane life everyday, the MOGO principle helps to guide me in my own decision making. When i choose not to purchase a product because i think it might have a negative impact on other people, other species, or the planet i do not feel like i am giving something up, but that i am gaining something. i gain a sense of interconnectedness with the non-human animals with whom i share the planet, a cleaner home to live and pass on to future generations, and consideration for people who live on the other side of the world, who i may never know, but are still a part of my family. i also gain the feeling of conscious deciesion-making, instead of impulse decesion making. i think in a culture where we are exposed to a large amount of advertising everyday, conscious descision making is a skill that we need to learn and practice. i also feel like i gain a better sense of what actual needs are as opposed to wants.
Recently, there was an article in the Atlantic Monthly that surveryed people on what they considered a need and what they considered to be a want. They compared the survery given this year to a survey given three years ago and there were many more people who considered TV, Microwave, and cell phones to be needs than previously.
i also gain more resources for which i can use to help others in need or causes that i am concerned about. i think that when we try to live a life causing the MOGO we gain so much more on an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual level.
Some of the decesions are not easy, they are not black and white, and it is difficult to know what is the MOGO, but to me, the struggle of learning that in life is part of our meaning. And to at least be conscious of that and aiming to do that is a life awakened.
Namaste.